


Nobody's Nothing

by Damerey



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 14:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13078380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damerey/pseuds/Damerey
Summary: The Resistance stops off at Jakku to resupply. Rey stays with the Falcon, eager to get away from her old home - the greatest reminder of all that she's nothing.





	Nobody's Nothing

Jakku.

She was back on Jakku.

Rey watched the others - what was left of the resistance - slip across the waving sand of her home planet. They needed to resupply, and this rock was their best option. Leia gave the order, and Chewie parked up without question. Rey hadn’t spoken up, couldn’t speak up. It was necessary.

But she didn’t want to be here.

It was funny, when she first left coming back was all she could think of. She had to return, for her family. Now…

She had a new family. A new home. It was a moving home, a hounded home, but a home nonetheless.

She fixed her eyes on Finn’s back, and smiled until he disappeared over one of the dunes. Then she kicked her boots up on the dash of the Falcon and settled in to wait. They wouldn’t be here long. Maybe they could leave as soon as the others got back?

She heard a crash, and then…

‘ _Shit_.’

Without thinking, Rey flung out a hand. Her blaster flew into her palm and she leapt up from the seat, poised to shoot the figure that stumbled into the cockpit.

He saw the blaster as the same time as she saw his face.

‘Oh…’ he said, straightening.

‘ _Poe_?’

Flushing, Rey dropped the blaster to her side. ‘I could have killed you.’

He didn’t look entirely comfortable, but he smiled anyway. He always seemed to be smiling, Rey had noticed.

‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ he said.

Rey couldn’t help but smile back. There was something easy about Poe, something comfortable. It had only been a few days since their escape from Crait, and he’d spent most of his time with the wounded since, but the Falcon wasn’t all that big when the entire Resistance was on board. Poe often joined them for meals, chatting away with Finn and Rose, catching her eye and her smiles.

Comfortable he may be, but Rey hadn’t spent any time alone with him. She shot a quick look out the cockpit, but the others had all disappeared from view now. Even Chewie.

‘I didn’t mean to disturb you,’ Poe said, drawing her attention back to him. He roughed up his hair was a hand. That made Rey smile too. ‘I didn’t realise you were still on board. I just…er…’ he glanced over his shoulder, ‘tripped.’

He looked a little sheepish, and Rey’s smile stretched. She ducked her head, wondering what she should do with her hands. They swung at her sides for a moment, until she felt her face start to burn. Then she dropped back onto the chair, holstering the blaster.

 _Idiot_ , she thought.

If Poe noticed her awkwardness, he made no sign of it. He placed his hands on his hips, and shrugged. ‘What are you doing here? BB-8 said I had to look after the Falcon, that everybody else was heading out.’

Rey frowned. ‘That doesn’t make any sense. BB-8 saw me here…’

Their eyes met, and this time a faint blush rose in Poe’s cheeks. They looked quickly away.

 _Damn droid_.

‘Do you mind?’ he said, indicating the co-pilot’s seat. Rey shook her head, glad to spin around to stare out at the horizon. It was less embarrassing than staring at him. He settled with a sigh, and Rey watched him out of the corner of his eye. His hands hovered over the dash, his eyes roved over the cockpit. His face lit up, more so than usual.

He must have felt her attention, for he laughed at himself and leant his head back. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘it’s just…I’ve dreamed of piloting this ship.’

‘Really?’ Rey said.

For so long it had sat on Jakku, forgotten garbage waiting to be torn into parts.

‘Of course,’ he said, sitting forwards again. There was such an energy to him, such a spark. ‘It’s the Millennium Falcon. It’s Han Solo’s ship. The ship that carried Luke Skywalker from Tatooine and out into the galaxy, the ship that saved the General from the Death Star, and then helped destroy the Death Star – twice.’

Rey relaxed as he spoke, glad now that she wasn’t alone. ‘I heard the stories, but I never believed them. It just…felt so far from everything I knew.’

‘And now look at you.’

‘What do you mean?’

He shrugged. ‘You’re part of it. Part of that story.’

Rey laughed. It was a nervous laugh, and she felt like a fool, but Poe never stopped smiling.

They’d almost met before, after the destruction of the Star Killer Base. They’d stood only metres apart, and BB-8 had rolled into the back of Rey’s legs incessantly, begging her to introduce herself. But she’d been so distracted by losing Han, with fear for Finn, and he’d seemed strangely intimidating in his uniform with all his confidence. She thought of her dusty old X-Wing pilot helmet, of the little pilot figure she’d made herself all those years ago. It had been too much then. Now, she wished she had introduced herself. Sure, she’d headed straight out to find Luke, but she felt like a person should take as much of Poe Dameron as they could get.

‘So, you’re not keen on visiting home?’

Rey took a deep breath. ‘There’s nothing to visit.’

‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘Finn told me a bit about how you guys met. And, of course,’ he rolled his eyes dramatically, ‘BB-8 won’t shut up about you.’

Again, Rey’s face betrayed her. She turned away, so he wouldn’t see her blush. What had he been told? That she was dirty, malnourished, living in squalor? She didn’t want Poe Dameron to know that part of her. She wanted him to look at her like he had when she’d lifted those rocks with her powers, always.

‘It might be worth saying goodbye, you know. Who can say if you’ll ever get a chance to come back here.’

Rey closed her eyes. ‘No, this place…it’s just a reminder that I’m…nothing. I don’t want to think of that.’

Poe was silent, and after a while Rey cracked an eye open in case he’d slipped away. She wasn’t sure why’d she’d said that. This wasn’t Finn she was talking too, but it just slipped out.

He sat forwards, his necklace falling out from beneath his shirt as he leaned close, his smile gone. ‘How can you say that?’

‘What?’ Rey’s brow pinched.

‘That you’re nothing?’

Rey was back there in an instant, in Snoke’s throne room. She’d never forget the fear she’d felt standing before him, the rush she’d felt when Kylo Ren killed him. Then they’d fought together, back to back, and she thought she’d done it. She thought she’d succeeded, thought she’d won. Only… _you’re nothing_.

‘Nobody’s nothing, Rey. Nobody. I heard what happened to you on StarKiller Base, that Ren tried to get inside your mind and you forced him out.’ Rey could not look away from him now. His dark eyes blazed with conviction, and something fluttered in her stomach. He barely knew her, but he believed in her. ‘I couldn’t fight him off when he did the same to me. I told him about BB-8, putting you in danger. I couldn’t do what you did. And hey, maybe there are some things you can’t do. But nobody is nothing, Rey, and especially not you.’

She'd almost believed Kylo, believed Ben. For so long she'd dreamed that she'd come from somewhere, and accepting the truth had left her vulnerable. Even after Finn had run to her, even after Leia had comforted her, Rey woke with those words in her mind. Yet Poe was so straighforward, so sure, Rey did not think she'd ever worry again. She did not need to be somebody to Kylo Ren, when she was already somebody to all of these people.

Rey let out a small, sighing breath. Poe seemed to realise how close he’d gotten, how charged he sounded, and he sat back again, clearing his throat. It was his turn to look flustered, Rey’s turn to smile.

‘Poe?’ He peeked at her, quickly.

‘How would you like to take the Falcon for a spin?’


End file.
